Martin Truex Jr. sits inside the playoff bubble despite not winning a race this NASCAR Cup Series season. However, anything can happen in stock car racing, especially at the upcoming Daytona International Speedway. The veteran race car driver would very much like to win one race before the playoffs begin to get some much-needed momentum during his final year as a full-time driver in the sport.
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Sunday’s race could be the one where he finally visits victory lane. However, superspeedways are tricky to run on, owing to the unpredictable nature of racing at such venues. Truex Jr. touched on the same and elaborated on the type of racing on display at such venues towards the end of a stage or race, especially as the regular season ends.
🚨DAYTONA MEGA WRECK🚨
📍DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
‼️Big wreck at end of second stage at Daytona International Speedway, Florida.
Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs and many more involved.
@police_frequency pic.twitter.com/IeoaRcMEji
— {Matt} $XRPatriot (@matttttt187) August 27, 2023
“Daytona is a wide-open crapshoot. Everyone holds it wide open. You get down to the end of the race and we’ve seen the crashes over and over on the green-white-checkereds. Everyone just holds it wide open and, if they have any momentum at all, they just try to drive through the guy in front of them and it spins him out and crashes him,” he explained to the media.
Cars often try to force their way past those in front, causing huge wrecks as drivers try to get into the playoffs. The veteran has to be wary of such instances. A poor points day could put him in a tough spot going into the final regular season race at Darlington.
Despite these sometimes hairy moments, Truex is a veteran of the sport and will be seen trying to avoid such instances as much as he can, with some help from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
Truex explains how Denny Hamlin is an asset at Daytona
There might be a lot of unpredictability at Daytona but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver believes that he has an advantage namely the driver of the #11 JGR Toyota. Hamlin has been a serial winner at the 2.5-mile-long track over the years, winning three Daytona 500s throughout his career. His experience will be key for other members of his team to learn from. And of course, if the need arises, he will push his teammates up the pack and help them out.
“I think there are a lot of guys that are really, really good at it. Denny (Hamlin) is certainly near the top. It is nice to have him in our camp to have with our deal. He’s very helpful. He’s very knowledgeable to help our guys with our gameplan and things, so I would say he’s probably right there at the top,” Truex added.
It remains to be seen how well team and manufacturer alliances can help the likes of Truex Jr. and Bubba Wallace, drivers whose postseason bids could be up in the air due to one slight slip-up, which might not even be triggered by themselves.
